Reminiscing Truths ⚓

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion."                                                         (Psalm 84:5) Those who walk uprightly, who love the habitation of His temple; to those who long, yes, faint, for the courts of the LORD--those people are blessed. They will go from strength to strength until they appear in Zion, before the God in whom they delight. And even as such a man goes through the Valley of Baca--that is, the valley of weeping ( emeq ha-Baka )--he asks but one thing of the Lord: "Oh LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer... Look on the face of your anointed one." (vv. 8-9) Nothing else. Nothing more, and nothing less, than for God to look at him in his distress and assure him of His presence. So where does he go? To the courts of the Lord, where His presence is promised. To His holy temple, where His glory is sure to be revealed. A man of God holds on to nothing else but God. And what does

I know in mind and heart that this is your most difficult birthday just yet. How it feels to have an ever gnawing pain with you when you wake up in the morning, and when you go to sleep at (mid) night, and every single time you let your thoughts wander far enough during the day. Maybe you also feel sometimes that you have to "suck it up and get on with it" because "it's been months," and you can't do anything about the past, so you just have to move forward. It's hard and difficult and painful, and the task before us is looming and terrifying. I mean how can life be not terrifying when so much has changed? But He who promised to us life and life abundant, in this world and the next, is faithful. And somehow this thought gets me through the hardest nights. Hoping it would also be of comfort and soothing balm to you. I love you, and happy birthday. I'm always praying for you, and for the day when we'd all cross beyond the River to our ete